Flashcard Sneak Peek: We’re VIRTUALLY Swimming in Flashcards
Take a sneak peek into Manhattan Prep’s 500 Essential Words and 500 Advanced Words GRE flashcard sets!
When writing these cards, we wanted to make sure that everyone could get something out of every card — even if you already know the word on the front. Virtual is a pretty simple word, but how about nomimal or de facto? Check it out:
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Easily Confused Words: “Affect” vs. “Effect”
Many students have been quite confused by questions like this one:
An outspoken advocate of reform, Olympia has long worked to ________ change in what others see as an irreparably corrupt system.
Select two choices:
censure forego prompt effect impede hinder
Flashcard Sneak Peek: A HodgePodge of Words for an Olio
Take a sneak peek into Manhattan Prep’s 500 Essential Words and 500 Advanced Words GRE flashcard sets!
Our cards have a LOT of synonyms. If you learned everything on our 1,000 flashcards, you’d certainly be learning more than 2,000 words. Check out all the words for a mixture or mishmash of things!
Try this GRE question that hinges on hodgepodge:
While the author’s first collection of short stories presented a ________ hodgepodge of voices, the second collection presents a remarkably _________ set of tales presented by a ________ narrator.
motley
variegated
homogeneous
insightful
even
facetious
lonely
disingenuous
sole
Flashcard Sneak Peek: Albeit and Other Conjunctions
Take a sneak peek into Manhattan Prep’s 500 Essential Words and 500 Advanced Words GRE flashcard sets!
You know what we’ve noticed? There are all kinds of words that people don’t know, but rarely look up, because those words aren’t “vocabulary words.” Hmmn. Actually, those words — generally conjunctions, prepositions, and adverbs — tend to be pivotal in understanding the meaning of a sentence! Check out just one of the kinds of words we’re talking about:
Are you clear on moreover, nonetheless, incidentally, whence, whereas, notwithstanding, via, apropos, per, and ergo?
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Cheesy Mnemonics for GRE Vocab: Insouciant
Mnemonics or mnemonic devices are memory tricks to help us remember things like vocabulary words (here’s a post about the word mnemonic).
However, many mnemonics are pretty cheesy — often involving the kind of jokes some people call “groaners.” For instance…
Vocabulary in The Arizona Republican Presidential Debate
As a Manhattan GRE employee I tend to see GRE vocabulary everywhere. When I’m reading a book, or watching TV, or listening to music, GRE vocabulary words just jump out at me. It is sort of like in the movie They Live when Rowdy Roddy Piper puts on his magic sunglasses and suddenly all of the writing in advertisements is changed to the word OBEY… except for me everything would be saying ACCEDE.
Just last night, during the Republican Presidential Debate in Arizona, I heard the candidates use a few great GRE vocabulary words. While politicians will often use simple language in an attempt to reach the broadest possible segment of the electorate, last night’s candidates didn’t hesitate to throw in a few obscure talking points.
At different points in last night’s debate, Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum each used the word feckless. Here is Romney’s quote:
Romney: We have very bad news that’s come from the Middle East over the past several months, a lot of it in part because of the feckless leadership of our President.
Flashcard Sneak Peek: Don’t Be a Sapskull?
Take a sneak peek into Manhattan Prep’s 500 Essential Words and 500 Advanced Words GRE flashcard sets!
When writing these cards, we wanted to make sure that everyone could get something out of every card — even if you already know the word on the front. Sap is one of those strange words that hardly anyone ever thinks to look up, but that actually has far more definitions than you’d think. Check it out:
Want to adopt 1,000 new flashcards? Visit our store here.
Flashcard Sneak Peek: Martinet, Hawk, Chauvinist (Words You Probably Shouldn’t Use in Your OKCupid Profile Name)
Take a sneak peek into Manhattan Prep’s 500 Essential Words and 500 Advanced Words GRE flashcard sets!
When writing these cards, we wanted to make sure that everyone could get something out of every card — even if you already know the word on the front. So, you may know martinet, but do you know doctrinaire, hawk and the real meaning of chauvinist? Read more
Vocab in the Classics: To the Immortal Memory of the Halibut
I came across 18th century poet William Cowper in the Slate article “Why are William Cowper’s poems so witty?”
For instance, this one (source):
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Visual Dictionary: Turgid
It’s been awhile since we’ve done a Visual Dictionary post, but let’s take on the word turgid:
Turgid (adj)
1. swollen; distended; tumid.
2. inflated, overblown, or pompous; bombastic: turgid language.
What would you describe as turgid (or its synonym, tumid)?
Reader Thomas M. writes:
“My withering tomato plants became turgid and vibrant after yesterday’s rain. An heirloom tomato becomes so turgid that it will split open with ripe juices … the best tomato you’ll ever taste. Isn’t it amazing how a succulent plant like the aloe vera plant stays turgid in the arid desert, while a plant native to our climate would wilt and wither in the desert?”
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